


Tenacious

by orphan_account



Category: Pocket Monsters SPECIAL | Pokemon Adventures, Pokemon
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-05-02
Updated: 2012-05-21
Packaged: 2017-11-04 17:40:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 611
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/396445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because she will never give up, he has to keep trying; otherwise, she will never let him live it down. [A collection of FranticShipping drabbles.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. ultraviolet

**Author's Note:**

> Ten drabbles. Part of a collection of drabbles called Boxes of Chocolates. Enjoy.

It isn't very often, but sometimes Ruby swears that she's someone else under dirt, under the sweat and the scars and the callused, bruised knees.

The rest of the time, though, he tells her how beautiful, how simply radiant she could be, if she were willing to touch up her face with a dab of blush, a tad of mascara, and a hint of eyeliner.

"Ya know, I won't let ya near me with that gunk!" she screeches, jumping up and grabbing onto a skinny branch and pulling herself up, up into the treetop. Away from Ruby, of course, who will not dare disturb his precious outfit with shenanigans.

Still, he brandishes the make-up high and proud. "Just once!" he calls out. Yes, even one time would freeze a beautiful image of her in his memory. And that would be enough even for him.

"No."

He sighs and slumps at the base of the tree, dejected by her blatant refusal. "Fine then. Some other day…" She throws an apple at his head from the top branches. It hits him with a thump, and he puts a hand on his cap in pain. "Hey, what was that for?"

"You're bein' an idiot!"

"Well, you're some sort of… of barbarian!" He too crosses his arms.

And for the longest time, they just sit there in half-annoyed, half-amused silence.

When the sun begins to set, he glances up to where Sapphire sits dangling her legs from the branch and smiles to himself. She hums quietly and stares off into the distance, no longer thinking about his attempt to paint her lips the color of blood. (Not that he wants to do that, since she has lovely lips all by herself.)

He stands and walks away, off toward home. He can live with that ultraviolet image of her, framed against the setting sun, and positively glowing.


	2. safe

When she hears the news, she is furious with him. Stupid idiot. What a fool. Got himself hurt, or catched, or… something. All she knows is that Ruby has vanished, and no one knows where he'd gone.

Her father tells her over breakfast in the middle of summer; stubborn to the end, she shouts at him, calls him a liar, runs out of the house and to his house. She climbs up his maple tree and peers into his bedroom, assuming she'll see him asleep in bed, arms strewn across his sheets and hair limp on his pillow. The only time she ever sees his hair without a hat is when he's asleep…

But he's gone. And so Sapphire climbs down from the tree.

Her father has followed her all the way across town, and he puts a hand over her back. Her shoulders tighten up, and Professor Birch prepares to comfort her as she weeps. But…

He expects tears, but he does not expect her to collapse, to scream out, eyes screwed shut as her voice crackles, lightning and fire and darkness. Her entire body coils and her face twists into a feral mask of fury.

The next day she's gone. Birch finds an illegibly scrawled note on her desk, but he doesn't need it to know where she went.

Sapphire is clever, and she is determined. She steals one of Ruby's hats for tracking purposes. Then she checks the secret base; she doesn't find him, but she sees footprints on his expensive rug, as well as signs of a scuffle. Whatever happened to him, didn't happen consensually.

She grips the hat and prepares to set off. Sapphire may not know where Ruby is, but she does know is that she won't rest until he's home safe again.


End file.
